TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying priorities for aging policies in two Portuguese communities
AU - Bárrios, Maria João
AU - Fernandes, Ana Alexandre
AU - Fonseca, António Manuel
PY - 2018/10/20
Y1 - 2018/10/20
N2 - The aging population has an impact on health, social, and economic issues in regard to individuals, communities, and organizations. The challenge for local policies in response to aging is to create sufficient resources to meet the population’s needs, wishes, and rights as people age. Active aging constitutes one of the guiding perspectives on policies. Taking into account the local governance perspective, the Model for Aging Local Policies Analysis (MALPA) was created in order to convert the active aging paradigm into a practical approach, as a technique to evaluate and analyze local aging policies. In this research, the MALPA instrument was applied in two Portuguese communities (Coruche and Oeiras). The objective was to identify the intervention priorities of aging policies in both communities, determining whether the instrument can facilitate the development of proposals for the improvement of local aging policies. It was possible to evaluate the communities and programs, identifying the least appropriate policy actions regarding the intervention priorities. The results allowed us to identify 10 priorities about collaborative governance, involvement of the elderly in the policy-making process, lifelong learning, economic hardship, policies for all ages, isolated vulnerable and fragile groups, intergenerational contacts, safety in all policies, labor opportunities, and conditions and transport network improvement.
AB - The aging population has an impact on health, social, and economic issues in regard to individuals, communities, and organizations. The challenge for local policies in response to aging is to create sufficient resources to meet the population’s needs, wishes, and rights as people age. Active aging constitutes one of the guiding perspectives on policies. Taking into account the local governance perspective, the Model for Aging Local Policies Analysis (MALPA) was created in order to convert the active aging paradigm into a practical approach, as a technique to evaluate and analyze local aging policies. In this research, the MALPA instrument was applied in two Portuguese communities (Coruche and Oeiras). The objective was to identify the intervention priorities of aging policies in both communities, determining whether the instrument can facilitate the development of proposals for the improvement of local aging policies. It was possible to evaluate the communities and programs, identifying the least appropriate policy actions regarding the intervention priorities. The results allowed us to identify 10 priorities about collaborative governance, involvement of the elderly in the policy-making process, lifelong learning, economic hardship, policies for all ages, isolated vulnerable and fragile groups, intergenerational contacts, safety in all policies, labor opportunities, and conditions and transport network improvement.
KW - Active aging
KW - Aging programs
KW - Local aging policies
KW - Local governance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052974030&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/08959420.2018.1442112
DO - 10.1080/08959420.2018.1442112
M3 - Article
C2 - 29461933
AN - SCOPUS:85052974030
SN - 0895-9420
VL - 30
SP - 458
EP - 477
JO - Journal of Aging and Social Policy
JF - Journal of Aging and Social Policy
IS - 5
ER -